Production of sauces and purees from fruits and vegetables



May 9, 1967 J. A. ROWSE 26,201

PRODUCTIGN OF QAUCES AND PUREES FROM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES OriginalFiled Nov. 13. 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 APPLE APPLE SAUCE JUICE WATEREXCHANGER 12201282302 Jwiaew J1. Rowse, by QM}. Q.

flfivrnqy May 9, 1967 J. A. ROWSE Re. 26,201

PRODUCTION OF SAUCES AND PUREES FROM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES OriginalFiled Nov. 13, 196] 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 WATE R gg g lweni'orty 1967 J. A.ROWSE Re. 26,201

PRODUCTION OF SAUCES AND PUREES FROM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES OriginalFiled Nov. 13, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 w Ll 2 :8 3 4 1 m Dal TO SLURRY ORWASTE CONE (SCREEN SUPPORT) United States Patent Ofilice Re. 26,201Reissued May 9, 1967 26 201 PRODUCTHON OF SAUES AND PUREES FROlW FRUITSAND VEGETABLES James A. Rowse, Mason, N.H. (R.F.l)., Grccnville, NJ].03048) Original No. 3,103,438, dated Sept. 10, 1963, Ser. No. 151,868,Nov. 13, 1961. Application for reissue Nov. 3, 1964, Ser. No. 422,479

8 Claims. (Cl. 99-100) Matter enclosed in heavy brackets appears in theoriginal patent but forms no part of this reissue specification; matterprinted in italics indicates the additions made by reissue.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my pending application,Ser. No. 41,464, filed May 13. 1960, now [to be] abandoned; and saidpending application is a continuation-in-part of my previousapplication, Ser. No. 855,750, filed Nov. 27, 1959, and now abandoned.

This invention relates to methods of commercially producing sauces andpurees from crushed or whole fruits and fresh or processed vegetablesand pertains more particularly to a continuous method for the productionof apple sauce from raw apples by forcibly extracting high grade,commercial sauce (and a predetermined quantity of apple juice, ifdesired) in a screening centrifuge, or a succession of such centrifuges.

The improved method is herein described in connection with theextraction of apple sauce from crushed raw apples, but it will beunderstood that the apples may be pre-cooked or otherwise processed, ifdesired, and that the methods herein disclosed and claimed may bepracticed in extracting sauces or purees from other fruits andvegetables of similar meaty consistency.

Heretofore, the customery procedure for producing apple sauce on acommercial scale has involved the selection of choice, hard wintervarieties of large-sized apples, which are at least 2 /2" in diameterand perfectly round in shape; machine peeling and coring the apples,frequently with hand trimming of the meat; chopping the apple meat;cooking the chopped segments with sugar and water; pulping or finishingthe cooked apple; and packing the screened sauce in an appropriatecontainer while the same is at a temperature high enough to insurepreservation.

It is the principal purpose of the present invention to avoid thoseseparate, costly and time consuming operations, and to provide arelatively simple and efficient process for making a superior grade ofapple sauce from any good quality apples, regardless of their size,shape or variety, in a continuous operation. Although the primaryobjective of the improved method is the production of such apple sauce,a predetermined portion of the juice may be extracted separately forpackaging as apple juice or apple cider, after such furtherclarification or polishing as may be necessary to produce a clear beverage, or for packaging as vinegar after further processing.

The production of apple sauce in accordance with this invention will beexplained in connection with the accompanying schematic drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of the sequence of operations in a continuousprocess involving the use of two screening centrifuges and theextraction of apple juice by the first centrifuge;

FIG. 2 is a similar diagram involving the direct extraction of applesauce in a single centrifuge;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary diagram similar to FIG. 1, illustrating theoptional step of conveying the crushed apple pulp and residue from thefirst centrifuge, through a mixer-screw conveyor;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary diagram similar to FIG. 2, in-

dicating the optional use of the mixer-screw conveyor in the singlecentrifuge method; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic elevation, partly broken away and in section,showing the essential operative elements of a screening centrifugesuitable for use in practicing this invention.

The improved method, as herein described in connection with FIG. 1, ofthe accompanying drawings, involves the steps of crushing raw apples ina standard hammer mill HM, preferably in the presence of a smallquantity of a suitable anti-oxidant, such as ascorbic acid, contained insupply tank A, to deter browning of the crushed apples and the juice andsauce extracted therefrom; conveying the crushed apples deposited inhopper H, as by a pump P1, to a first screening centrifuge M1, equippedwith a relatively fine screen; extracting a predetermined quantity ofapple juice through the fine screen of centrifuge M1, piping theextracted juice to a reservoir labeled Apple [Appled] Juice, anddepositing the residual pulp, including the inedible solid particles, ina conical hopper C from said centrifuge; mixing water, juice or acombination thereof with the deposited pulp, by introducing the same asa slurrying liquid through a pipe labeled Water which may lead to thebase of centrifuge M1, or directly to cone C if preferred; slurrying thedeposited pulp with said liquid in cone C which is preferably equippedwith a suitable agitator (not shown), to insure thorough mixing thereof.

The slurry is then conveyed from cone C, as by pump P2 to a secondscreening centrifuge M2 having a relatively coarse screen; extractingapple sauce through the coarse screen, piping the extracted sauce to areservoir labeled Apple Sauce, and depositing and discharging theresidual chaff, from centrifuge M2, onto a waste conveyor W. Theslurried pulp transferred from cone C to centrifuge M2 is preferablyheated and kept hot, to prevent browning of the slurry and the pulpextracted as apple sauce, due to oxidation. The temperature may bemaintained at F., or higher if [is] desired, by a recycling or otherheater, as labeled Heat Exchanger, by introducing hot water or steam tothe base of said centrifuge or to the cone C, or otherwise.

The pumps P1 and P2 are shown as worm type conveyors of standardconstruction and operation but other types of pumping apparatus mayobviously be employed; and the structural details of other apparatusused in carrying out the process, except the screening centrifuges, arenot important to the practice of this invention.

For example, in the optional and preferred slurrying step diagrammed inFIG. 3, the residual pulp and solids discharged from centrifuge M1 aredeposited in the trough of a standard type of combination mixer-heaterand screw conveyor S which discharges the slurry into cone C. Such foodmixing screw conveyors have heretofore been used in blanching fruits orvegetables with steam or hot water, and have been sold for that purposeunder the trade name Rietz Thermascrew." When used for the presentpurpose, heat is applied through the hollow screw of the conveyor,and/or through steam jets, only if heat is desired at that step of theprocess.

When the screw conveyor S is employed, as in FIG. 3, water, apple juiceor a combination of water and juice is preferably added to the juice andsolids deposited in the trough of the conveyor, as a slurrying liquid,by piping the liquid to the trough through the pipe line labeled Waterand/or Juice. The pulp and solids are then mixed and slurried with theliquid while passing through the screw conveyor S; and heat may beapplied, if needed, to prepare the slurry for more efiicient extractionat the succeeding centrifuge M2 (FIG. 1), or to ftlrther inhibitbrowning of the pulp or sauce, as aforesaid. The mixer- \J conveyor Sensures a thorough mixing of the slurricd pulp and deposited solids, anddeposits the slurry in cone C. whence it is pumped to centrifuge M2 asdescribed in connection with FIG. 1.

I have found that the usual types of pulpers, finishers, or centrifugalextractors heretofore employed in connection with the manufacture ofpurces or sauces cannot satisfactorily be used for the extraction of thejuice, pulp and edible solids from crushed whole fruits or vegetables,or from a slurry thereof. Crushed apples, for example, form a nearlyimpenetrable mass from which only small quantities of juice, andpractically no clear sauces or purees can be separated by mere screeningor draining or ordinary centrifuging. In order to extract a highpercentage of juice, sauce or puree, it is necessary to move arelatively thin layer of the mass of crushed fruit or slurry over ascreen having openings of predetermined size, and to forcibly extractthe juice and pulp by centrifugal force through a screen which retainsinediblc solids as chaff.

Standard basket centrifuges have no means for moving a thin layer ofcrushed fruit over the surface of a screen, and cannot separate asubstantial proportion of the juice or pulp from the impenetrable mass.irrespective of the degree of centrifugal force. The clarifyingcentrifuges or de-sludgers which involve a multiple-disc arrangementwith close tolerances will not work satisfactorily because the largeparticle sizes of inedible solids in crushed fruit will not pass betweenthe discs.

For the purposes of the present invention it is accordingly necessary toutilize a screening centrifuge which will operate upon whole crushedfruit, including the inedible undesired solids, such as skins, stems,seeds, seed cells and blossom ends, as Well as the edible, meaty contentof the fruit; and which will separate substantially all of the juice andpulp from the undesired solids so the latter may be discharged assubstantially dry chaff.

It is also highly desirable that crushed whole fruit, including suchinedible solids, be used in the practice of the improved centrifugalscreening process, for the solid particles decrease the compactness ofthe mass of crushed fruit meat or pulp, and tend to make it more porousand easily movable through the screening centrifuge, whereby practicallyall of the juicy pulp is extracted as sauce or puree, leaving the drychaff as aforesaid.

The only type of centrifuge which has proved to be efficient andsatisfactory in the commercial practice of my invention is thatdiagrammatically shown in FIG. 5 of the drawings. Such screeningcentrifuges have heretofore been used for other purposes, and aremanufactured and sold under the trade names *l't tercone" and Conejec- 7tor. They comprise essentially, as shown, a rotatable, conical drumhaving helical, peripheral blades, labeled Helix in FIG. 3: a rotatable,conical frame labe'ed Cone (Screen Support), spaced front the drum andslotted to provide ports or passageways for extracted juice and pulp;and a conical, slotted or perforated plate, labeled Screen, supported bythe cone in closely spaced relation to the helical blade or worm of therotating drum.

Because of the narrow space between the drum of the helix and thescreen, only a relatively thin layer of the crushed fruit, fed in acontinuous stream through the opening in the top of the centrifuge andrendered porous by the solid particles mentioned above, is carrieddownwardly over the surface of the screen by the positive action of thehelix. The juice or pulp is extracted through the screen by means of thecentrifugal force created by the spinning action of the machine andacting upon the crushed fruit between the courses of the helical blades.

Such extraction, the downward movement of the mass and the discharge ofwaste particles is preferably accomplished by rotating the drum or helixat a slightly faster rate than the speed of rotation of the screen andits supporting cone. The amount of solids in the juice or the particlesize of the solids in the purees or sauces extracted depends upon thesize of the screen openings.

ill

As explained in connection with the process shown in FIG. 1, involvingtwo centrifugal extraction operations, the screen of the firstcentrifuge is relatively fine, so that only apple juice is extracted atthat stage, and the mass of pulp and solids is discharged and thenslurried for a second extraction step in a centrifuge having arelatively coarse screen which passes the balance of the juicy pulp, anddischarges substantially dry chaff for waste disposal. Some pulpparticles which are slightly larger than the openings in the coarsescreen are drawn through the screen by the centrifugal action of themachine, the force of such action increasing progressively as thecrushed fruit is moved downwardly over the continuously increasingdiameter of the centrifuge.

The two-step extraction procedure is especially valuable in processingrelatively soft and juicy fruits and vegetables such as McIntosh appleswhich have not heretofore been successfully used in making commercialapple sauce, although they have been suitable for the production of verysoft and juicy purees for infants food. The initial juice extractionstep is thus desirable to reduce the Water content of the mass, prior tothe extraction of sauce from soft fruits; and it will be understood thatthe quantity of the juice so extracted may be regulated, according tothe water content of the fruit, by selecting a screen with appropriatelysized openings. For example, the volume of the extracted juice may beregulated to correspond, approximately, with the proportion of juicewhich would be lost by peeling and coring the same apples to producesauces and purees by old and conventional methods.

It will also be apparent that the consistency of the slurry fed to thesecond centrifuge may be controlled by adding more or less of theslurrying liquideither water, juice or a mixtureto the pulp and solidmass in the cone C (FIG. 1) or in the screw conveyor S (FIG. 3); andthat the texture of the extracted apple sauce may be further regulatedby the type of screen selected for the second centrifuge.

in the commercial practice of the two-step process, the openings of thescreen of the first centrifuge are preferably .005" to .010" in width;and the openings in the screen of the second centrifuge may be in therange of .025" to .05" in width. The openings may be round holes ornarrow slots, as desired.

The optional process indicated in FIG. 2, involves only onescreencentrifuging step, and is suitable for hard fruits or vegetables,such as relatively dry Winter apples, having low juice content. Thecrushed, whole apples with antioxidant A, are fed directly to thecentrifuge M, and sauce is extracted in the manner above described,without extracting juice as a preliminary step. lf the juice content ofthe crushed apples is insufficient to produce sauce of the desiredtexture, water and/or juice may be added to the apples while they arebeing ground in the hammer mill. The screen of centrifuge M may haveopenings sized between .025" and .05", to permit extraction ofsubstantially all of the meaty pulp of the crushed apples, and retainfor discharge the waste chaff and residual pomace.

The optional process outlined in FIG. 4, is preferred to the optionalprocess diagrammed in FIG. 2 in that the crushed apples from hammer millHM are deposited in the trough of a mixer-heater screw conveyor S of thetype described above, so that the pulp and inedible solids arethoroughly mixed and heated if necessary before the mixture is pumped tothe centrifuge M (FIG. 2). In this case, if additional water, juice or acombination thereof is to be added, the liquid is supplied to the troughof the conveyor S through the pipe line labeled Water and/or Juice (HG.4). The conveyor deposits the mixture, in the hopper H whence it istransferred by means of pump P to the open top of the centrifuge M forthe extraction of sauce and deposit of chaff in the manner described inconnection with FIGS. 1 or 2.

It will be appreciated that the effective size of the screen openings,in any of the continuous procedures herein described, will depend uponthe character of the fruit and the desired grain or texture of the sauceor puree which is to be extracted. It will also be apparent that morethan two screening centrifuges may be used, if desired, for specialconditions, in practicing this invention. Any of such processes arecarried on as continuous operations, with automatic feeding and removalof the waste, as well as of the commercial products.

Finally, it will be understood that the term apples, as used in theappended claims is intended to include other fruits and vegetables ofcomparable meaty consistency; and that the term sauce contemplates thinpurees as well as thicker sauces.

I claim:

1. A continuous method of producing apple sauce from whole, uncookedapples, comprising the following steps: crushing the whole apples in thepresence of an edible antioxidant, helically conveying under centrifugalforce a continuous thin layer of the crushed apples, including theedible juicy pulp and the skin, seeds and other inedible solids thereof,through a narrow passageway, and simultaneously centrifugally screeningedible, juicy pulp from the inedible solids, to continuously extract thejuicy pulp as apple sauce, and continuously discharging the inediblesolids from the passageway.

2. A method as described in claim I, in which the edible juicy pulp ofthe crushed apples is heated to revent browning of the pulp and applesauce due to oxidation.

3. A continuous method of producing apple sauce from relatively soft,whole, uncooked apples, comprising the following steps: crushing thewhole apples in the presence of an edible antioxidant, helicallyconveying under centrifugal force a continuous thin layer of the crushedapples, including the edible juicy pulp and the skin, seeds and otherinedible solids thereof, through a narrow, conical passageway, andsimultaneously centrifugally screening the juice from the pulp andinedible solids of the layer of crushed apples, to extract apple juice,and continuously discharging the residual pulp and the inedible solidsfrom the passageway; continuously mixing and slurrying the dischargedresidual pulp and inedible solids to form a slurry, helically conveyingunder centrifugal force a continuous thin layer of the slurry through anarrow, conical passageway, and simultaneously centrifugally screeningthe slurried pulp from the inedible solids, to extract juicy pulp asapple sauce, and continuously discharging the inedible solids from thepassageway as waste.

4. A method as described in claim 3, in which the edible juicy pulp ofthe crushed apples is heated to prevent browning of the pulp and applesauce due to oxidation.

5. A continuous method of producing a sauce and the like from wholeproduce of meaty consistency, such as apples and the like, comprisingthe following steps: crushing the whole produce into smaller pieces inthe presence of an edible antioxidant, helically conveying undercentrifugal force a continuous thin layer of crushed produce, includingsuch portions as the edible juicy pulp and the skin, seeds and otherinedible solids thereof, through a narrow passageway, and simultaneouslycentrifugally screening edible, juicy pulp from the inedible solids, tocontinuously extract the juicy pulp as sauce and the like, andcontinuously discharging the inedible solids from the passageway.

6. A method as described in claim 5, in which the edible juicy pulp ofthe crushed produce is heated to prevent browning of the pulp and sauceand the like due to oxidation.

7. A continuous method of producing a sauce and the like from wholerelatively soft produce having a meaty consistency, such as apples andthe like, comprising the following steps: crushing the whole produceinto smaller prices in the presence of an edible antioxidant, helicallyconveying under centrifugal force a continuous thin layer of crushedproduce, including such portions as the edible juicy pulp and the skin,seeds and other inedible solids thereof, through a narrow passageway,and simultaneously centrifugally screening the juice from the pulp andinedible solids of the pieces of the crushed produce to extract juice,and continuously discharging the residual pulp and the inedible solidsfrom the passageway; continuously mixing and slurrying the dischargedresidual pulp and the inedible solids to form a slurry, helicallyconveying under centrifugal force a continuous thin layer of the slurrythrough a narrow passageway, and simultaneously centrifugal/y screeningthe slurried pulp from the inedible solids, to extract juicy pulp assauce and the like, and continuously discharging the inedible solidsfrom the pas sageway as waste.

8. A method as described in claim 7, in which the edible juicy pulp ofthe crushed produce is heated to prevent browning of the pulp and sauceand the like due to oxidation.

References Cited by the Examiner The following references, cited by theExaminer, are

of record in the patented file of this patent or the original patent.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,119,263 12/1914 Frericks 9910l 2,890,961 6/1959Davis 99-454 2,935,407 5/1960 Haman 99154 OTHER R EFERENCES Bedrosian,K., et aL, Food Technology, December 1959, pp. 722 to 726, articleentitled, Eifect of Borates and Other Inhibitors on Enzymatic Browningin Apple Tissue.

A. LOUIS MONACELL, Primary Examiner. R. S. AULL, H. LORD, AssistantExaminers.

